Why does Marvel keep starting their numbers over

[Digifiend]

40s? That was still going on in the 60s. Think about Journey Into Mystery, Strange Tales, Tales of Suspense, and Tales to Astonish. Those four were renamed The Mighty Thor, Doctor Strange, Captain America, and Incredible Hulk. So that Immortal Hulk #2 cover may say #719 on it, but it's not the 719th issue of Hulk. A bunch of the first hundred issues were actually Ant-Man and Sub-Mariner.

[Magneto]

Greed and unethical behavior.

[cc008]

Greed and unethical behavior.

Yeah, that's it

[mrbrklyn]

It's definitely a marketing gimmick, to take advantage of speculators who buy up all the new #1s and subsequent variant covers. Although, I do think Marvel is at last seeing diminishing returns over this practise. After so many relaunches the sales boost from a new #1 just isn't what it used to be.

Not if the FF is an example..

[mrbrklyn]

40s? That was still going on in the 60s. Think about Journey Into Mystery, Strange Tales, Tales of Suspense, and Tales to Astonish. Those four were renamed The Mighty Thor, Doctor Strange, Captain America, and Incredible Hulk. So that Immortal Hulk #2 cover may say #719 on it, but it's not the 719th issue of Hulk. A bunch of the first hundred issues were actually Ant-Man and Sub-Mariner.

Yeah, Marvel was strange with that. It might have had to do with the distribution troubles that they had. They didn't do that with Spiderman. It helped Marvel that their initial focus wasn't on Super-Hereos. That allowed them to market and create unusual super-hereos in new niches.

But now, everytime an editorial board gets board, or a writing team gets bored, they restart the entire Marvel universe and renumber everything from one. They should wipe it out again and continue with the original numbers. Those numbers are more about publishing continuity and meta-data for fans than story continuity. It gets very hard to know what title you are talking about when you say FF# 6

[mrbrklyn]

if you look, most comics now have their legacy numbering embedded as well. Note immortal hulk is labelled as #2/lgy. #719. Its not starting over so much as they are recognizing "seasons" to make it easier for new readers to jump on. Its a smart move, really. People are making way too big of a deal on it on this board as there's not been a reboot sense secret wars. If you want to blame storied being cut short its the crossovers more than anything.

Here is a cover where both numbers are featured.



hulk isn't alone in this, thor and other long runners are doing this as well. This idea that they are rebooting every year is basically false.

great cover!

[Prof. Warren]

Greed and unethical behavior.

Every business in a capitalist society can be labeled "greedy." For any company that wants to thrive, profit is the name of the game.

And it's not "unethical" to restart a new volume of a comic title. It's not even in the ballpark of unethical.

But now, everytime an editorial board gets board, or a writing team gets bored, they restart the entire Marvel universe and renumber everything from one. They should wipe it out again and continue with the original numbers. Those numbers are more about publishing continuity and meta-data for fans than story continuity. It gets very hard to know what title you are talking about when you say FF# 6

Not really. Pretty simple, actually. All you have to do is clarify what volume you're talking about.

Also, they've never restarted the Marvel universe. Renumbering volumes is not the same as restarting continuity.

[Carabas]

Greed and unethical behavior.

It's certainly some greed there, but how is it unethical?

[Flash Gordon]

I don't know, but it's getting insanely hard for me to keep up with.

[Digifiend]

Every business in a capitalist society can be labeled "greedy." For any company that wants to thrive, profit is the name of the game.

And it's not "unethical" to restart a new volume of a comic title. It's not even in the ballpark of unethical.



Not really. Pretty simple, actually. All you have to do is clarify what volume you're talking about.

Also, they've never restarted the Marvel universe. Renumbering volumes is not the same as restarting continuity.

Yeah, for example Kamala Khan's second #1 was the start of Ms. Marvel volume 4 (the first two volumes were Carol Danvers).

[Digifiend]

Yeah, Marvel was strange with that. It might have had to do with the distribution troubles that they had. They didn't do that with Spiderman. It helped Marvel that their initial focus wasn't on Super-Hereos. That allowed them to market and create unusual super-hereos in new niches.

But now, everytime an editorial board gets board, or a writing team gets bored, they restart the entire Marvel universe and renumber everything from one. They should wipe it out again and continue with the original numbers. Those numbers are more about publishing continuity and meta-data for fans than story continuity. It gets very hard to know what title you are talking about when you say FF# 6

I wonder why? ASM #1 could've easily been issue 16, as the book did replace Amazing Fantasy.

[Star_Jammer]

Greed and unethical behavior.

[iron chimp]

It's certainly some greed there, but how is it unethical?

All the variant covers are. A proportion of any hobby has an ocd element to it and variants exploit that obsessive compulsive behaviour in a section of the readership. But what better excuse to launch a load of variants than with a #1.

[Star_Jammer]

All the variant covers are. A proportion of any hobby has an ocd element to it and variants exploit that obsessive compulsive behaviour in a section of the readership. But what better excuse to launch a load of variants than with a #1.

"I eat unhealthily because McDonald's offers a $1 menu" is what this sounds like.

[Daniel22]

Ethics doesn't mean what some of you think it means. There's a lot of exaggeration and some outright false claims being made in this thread.